Gangnam Building Redesign by MVRDV

Dutch architects MVRDV have redesigned a 1980s building in the Gangnam district of Seoul, South Korea. Dutch studio has transformed the facade of an ageing mixed-use building into a stack of shop windows in Gangnam, the trendy district of Seoul described in the world-famous Korean pop song. Positioned amongst the designer boutiques of Apgujung Road, the 1980s Chungha building contains a leather accessories store on its ground floor. The upper levels accommodate more private businesses, including a wedding planner and two plastic surgery practices, so its tenants had previously covered over the strip windows and created a messy-looking exterior. For the renovation, MVRDV removed the beige stone cladding and original glazing and replaced them with a facade of 18 boxes, each with a glazed shop window across its face. Different boxes were handed over to the various tenants, who can either fill them with product displays or screen them using translucent posters. “The windows no longer correspond with the interior,” MVRDV’s Jan Knikker told Dezeen. “The general ambition was to keep them as large as possible. The upper windows also follow view lines across the city.” Take a look

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